Eastern Kentucky Slated For Pair Of OVC Road Matches

Press Release courtesy of Eastern Kentucky Athletics

The Eastern Kentucky University volleyball team hits the road this weekend to play a pair of Ohio Valley Conference games at the University of Tennessee at Martin on Friday and Southeast Missouri State University on Saturday.

Friday’s contest is set to begin at 8 p.m. with first serve on Saturday at 3 p.m.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

-Eastern (7-15, 5-3 OVC) dropped two matches last weekend against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois University.

-The Colonels are holding opponents to a mere .151 hitting percentage in conference action, the second lowest in the OVC.

-Junior libero Chloe Rojas led all players in digs on the weekend with 30 against SIUE, a new career-high, and 24 against EIU. She leads the Colonels in digs with 353 (4.01-per-set).

-Cassie Knutson led all players with 29 assists against EIU, and notched a double-double on Friday night with 11 kills and 11 assists.

-Celina Sanks leads the Colonels in kills (251) and service aces (26). She has added 170 digs, second-most on the team.

-EKU returns all letterwinners from last season.

-Drost and Rachel Woody were both named All-OVC Preseason Selections going into the season.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS:

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT MARTIN

-UT Martin (10-11, 4-4 OVC) has only won one of its last five matches. Most recently picking up the win over Tennessee State in four sets.

-Jemima Idemudia leads the Skyhawks with 225 kills on the season. She is hitting a .292. Idemudia also leads the conference in blocks with 49.0 (league action).

-Tennessee-Martin is setting the pace for the conference in league-action in blocks, tallying 92.5 on the season.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE

-SEMO (7-15, 2-6 OVC) has only won one of its last six contests, most recently dropping a three-set decision to Belmont in Nashville, Tennessee.

-Krissa Gearring is leading the Redhawks with 222 kills on the year, Nzingha Clarke follows behind with 175.

-Southeast Missouri State is out-blocking the competition 189.0-145.5. The squad falls behind opponents in the kills category, 1096-934, in assists 1008-869 and in service aces 121-117.

WHAT’S NEXT:

-After the weekend EKU returns home Oct. 27 and 28 to square off against Belmont University and Tennessee State University. Friday night will be the EKU Volleyball popsocket giveaway andSaturday will be Senior Day.